AP Misrepresenting "Liberal" Targets Of NYPD Surveillance

April 18, 2012

By WILLIAM MAYER

March 26, 2012 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In an Associated Press video published last week by the Washington Post, AP continued its baseless attack on the NYPD's terror surveillance program, charging that coincident with NY's demonstrations [upwards of 1,800 arrested] against the 2004 Republican Convention, "...undercover cops monitored certain groups, anti war organizations, environmental advocates, even church groups...but a new document uncovered by the Associated Press showed that those tactics went on for years after the convention. NYPD officers spied on liberal organizations, even kept files on particular people based on their political leanings..." [source, AP Video. supporting article New Orleans 'summit' among liberal gatherings infiltrated by New York police]

The video features a number of those "targeted" by the NYPD program including Jordan Flaherty1, identified on screen simply as a "demonstrator." [Note: Although Mr. Flaherty's politics will, in part, be dealt with in this piece, Eugene Puryear 2 was similarly highlighted in the AP video and also tagged as a demonstrator. Like Mr.Flaherty, Mr. Puryear was passed off as a liberal].

The purpose then of this essay is to briefly deconstruct AP's use of the term liberal in this matter.

Upon investigation, Mr. Flaherty is a bit more threatening than AP's labeling might suggest.

For example he edits the Marxist publication, "Left Turn, Notes From the Global Intifada" [see, http://www.leftturn.org/]. The publication [February was its last print edition, according to the website] defines itself as, "a national network of activists engaged in exposing and fighting the consequences of global capitalism and imperialism. Rooted in a variety of social movements, we are anti-capitalists, radical feminists, anti-racists, queer and trans- liberationists, and anti-imperialists working to build resistance and alternatives to corporate power and empire."

In short form then Mr. Flaherty is a hard-left revolutionary, not a liberal.

What seems to have caught the attention of the NYPD in his case was Flaherty's participation at a radical anti-capitalist event in New Orleans, the "New Orleans Summit," as well his alleged previous membership in the "International Solidarity Movement" [ISM]. AP seems non-plussed by the potential threat posed by such an ideologue.

The ISM is a notorious "pro-Palestinian" group which according to one of its key members, had a working relationship with terrorist outfits including Hamas. It should come as no surprise that the group was founded by extreme leftists.

The New Orleans Summit featured as one of its opening ceremony presenters [not identified on the recording] an organizer who declared, "I want to welcome you all...we are very proud to be hosting this event, the beginning of three days of resistance to the security and prosperity partnership of America...our continuing resistance to global capitalism, colonialism and racism..." [source, Internet Archive retrieval, New Orleans Summit, MP3 recording]

Among the meeting's sponsoring groups, which we assume the AP would also characterize as "liberal," were the Red Mexicana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC), the United States Marxist Lenonist Organization, CIEPAC, A.C. (Center for Economic, Political Investigations for Community Action) - Chiapas, Mexico as well as Flaherty's Left Turn Magazine.

Misleading reporting seems to have become a mainstay practice of Associated Press and this matter is no different. Despite AP's strident accusations suggesting that the NYPD surveillance operation is using racial, ethnic and political profiling to harass and intimidate Muslim Americans, the NY Intel unit is widely recognized as being, by far the most effective local level anti-terror organization within the United States, having broken-up numerous Islamic terror plots.

AP's motives in slanting news coverage are impossible to determine with any certainty; the organization is tight lipped, but the sheer fact that it has been caught publishing [and then shamed into retracting] doctored photos, which along with its omnipresent and ham-fisted cheerleading for the left, makes it impossible to really trust any political copy generated by it.

In the current case, AP shielded the nature of some of the alleged victims of NYPS's surveillance by defining them in non-threatening terms, in order to pursue its stance that NYPD is out of control and willfully violating the civil rights of New Yorkers.

This plays into the larger MSM narrative, pushed by Hamas friendly American Islamist groups primarily, that America is an Islamophobic nation.

What AP and its brethren are doing, vis-à-vis its use of the straw-dog of Islamophobia, is aiding American Islamists in helping to enforce the precepts of Shari'a, which broaches no criticism.

In this regard AP is actively aiding the work of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to slowly Islamize the United States and the rest of the "infidel" West, by muzzling itself.

Those involved in the increasingly successful attempt to further Shari'a establishment [or in the case of the hard-left, those desirous of overthrowing American democracy] are 180 degrees out of phase with the definition of "liberal."

Individuals and organizations which seek political dominion via religious or political fanaticism, represent an existential threat to Western culture. The fact that AP either doesn't understand the enabling process in which they seem to be engaged, or worse, fully understands the back-story here, will further erode AP's already sketch reputation.

It strains credulity, but it seems that AP actually believes that political beliefs should be of no concern in counter-terrorism efforts. The inference here is that any and all political ideologies, no matter how subversive they might be, should be shielded against the good faith, reasonable efforts of law enforcement to prevent mass casualty events.

If, in AP's opinion such individuals represent no threat to civil society, then the organization is in the throes of a breathtaking cognitive dissonance which lies far beyond the remedy of simply correcting its misrepresentations and getting back to reporting and not making the news.

End Notes:

1. In a bio offered by the lefty Huff Post, Mr. Flaherty is described in part as, "a journalist, an editor of Left Turn Magazine, and a staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting has been featured in a wide range of publications including the New York Times, Mother Jones, and Argentina's Clarin. Audiences around the world have seen the television reports he's produced for Al-Jazeera..." [source, Flaherty bio, Huffington Post]

The Christian Science Monitor debunked the fallacious MSM [calling it a disgrace, very strong criticism indeed of the legacy media] account of the "Jena 6" as follows:

"...By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they've all heard the story of the "Jena 6." White students hanging nooses barely punished, a schoolyard fight, excessive punishment for the six black attackers, racist local officials, public outrage and protests - the outside media made sure everyone knew the basics.

There's just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice..." [source, Craig Franklin, A local journalist tells the story you haven't heard, Christian Science Monitor]

Additionally Mr. Flaherty wrote the chapter entitled, "Organizing International Solidarity with Palestine," [pg. 187-191] in the 2003 book, "Live From Palestine, International and Palestinian Direct Action Against the Israeli Occupation." [see, Table of Contents]. The forward of this book was written by the noted leftist theoretician/linguist, Noam Chomsky.

2. Eugene Puryear, also highlighted in the AP video and represented simply as a demonstrator, is a Marxist and member of the "Party for Socialism and Liberation."

According to his Wiki, he was the party's VP candidate for President of the United States in the 2008 election. [source, Puryear Wiki]

Puryear is a prolific writer whose product is regularly featured on the Party for Socialism and Liberation's website, where he writes, "...The reason that the Communist Manifesto remains such an inspiration for revolutionary change is that it is not just the musings of social reformers, philosophers or political wannabes. It is a working class guide for changing the world..." [source, Eugene Puryear The Communist Manifesto, A working-class guide to changing the world]